Now Playing: The National, “Conversation 16”

The National is one of those bands that I love desperately but once in a while can’t listen to for long stretches of time because their explorations of the experience of anxiety, grief, and depression strike too close to home for me. Some of their songs are pretty dark, and Conversation 16 is one of their darkest. One of the (many) things I love about the band, however, is that they usually don’t attempt to create straightforward illustrative music videos for their singles; while their songs are earnest and sometimes heartbreaking, they use their videos to poke fun at themselves, deflating any traces of pretentiousness. This is one of their best: it has Kristen Schaal (The Daily Show, The Last Man on Earth) as POTUS and John Slattery (Mad Men) as her lovesick bodyguard, and it’s brilliant.